" [2] Let me see--Ward,
the Hollands, the Lambs, Rogers, etc., etc.,--every body, more or less,
have been trying for the last two years to accommodate this _couplet_
quarrel, to no purpose. I shall laugh if Augusta succeeds.
Redde a little of many things--shall get in all my books to-morrow.
Luckily this room will hold them--with "ample room and verge, etc., the
characters of hell to trace." [3] I must set about some employment soon;
my heart begins to eat _itself_ again.
[Footnote 1: In 1804 Albany House, in Piccadilly, long occupied by the
Duke of York and Albany, was converted into sets of bachelor chambers,
and the gardens behind were also built over with additional suites of
rooms. Byron's were in the original house on the ground floor, No. 2.
Moore, writing to Rogers, April 12, 1814 ('Memoirs, etc'., vol. viii. p.
176), says,
"Lord Byron, as you know, has removed into Albany, and lives in an
apartment, I should think thirty by forty feet."]
[Footnote 2: 'Hamlet', act v. sc. 1, line 299.]
[Footnote 3:
"Give ample room, and verge enough
The characters of hell to trace."
Gray, 'The Bard', lines 51, 52.]
* * * * *
April 8.
Out of town six days. On my return, found my poor little pagod,
Napoleon, pushed off his pedestal;--the thieves are in Paris. It is his
own fault. Like Milo, he would rend the oak; [1] but it closed again,
wedged his hands, and now the beasts--lion, bear, down to the dirtiest
jackal--may all tear him.
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